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Strange new worlds

Sep 8, 2026, 10:48am EDT
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Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry.

Star Trek: The Original Series, created by Gene Roddenberry.

The first episode of the great, long-running show boldly went where no man had gone before 60 years ago today.

The pilot was — unfortunately for the purposes of a daily recommendation slot — not very good.

If you’d like to dust an episode off, turn to episode 28, The City on the Edge of Forever, written by science-fiction great Harlan Ellison: It still “[shines] brightly despite the ravages of time,” the author John Walters wrote in a 2017 retrospective. Inevitably it involves Captain Kirk falling in love with an inhabitant of the world they visit. Watch Star Trek where you are.

— Tom Chivers
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